Four years ago, the UB men's basketball team brought in its most highly touted recruiting class in Bulls history, a quartet comprised of Jason Bird, Daniel Gilbert, Mark Bortz and Turner Battle.
On Saturday night, a crowd of 6, 345 - the third-largest crowd in Alumni Arena history - was on hand to honor Buffalo's four seniors, as the Bulls ended their regular season with a gritty 72-56 Mid-American Conference victory over the visiting Akron Zips (18-9 overall, 11-7 MAC).
With the win, the Bulls improved their record to 19-8 overall and 11-7 in the MAC, thereby securing the No. 7 seed heading into the first round of the MAC Tournament. UB will now host No. 10 Northern Illinois (11-16 overall, 7-11 MAC) at 7 p.m. on Monday night in Alumni Arena. This is the third season in a row that the Bulls and the Huskies will have met for a first round MAC Tournament game.
"I thought it was a very physical game, which didn't favor us," said Akron head coach Keith Dambrout. "(Buffalo is) a strong team. Everyone in the preseason thought they were the best team. I still think they are. (The game) meant something to them and they wanted to win, for not only themselves, but for their fans and for their coach."
Looking to recover from Wednesday night's loss on the road to Ohio University, the Bulls were able to eclipse a turnover-ridden first half of play and ultimately claim the game thanks to a combination of solid second-half defense, the hot hand of junior guard Roderick Middleton and strong overall contributions from all four seniors.
"To lose that game the way we did against Ohio, to really get outworked, we came in and our team really had an energy and a determination coming in (against Akron)," said Bortz, who finished the game with four points, six rebounds and two huge blocked shots. "Akron doesn't care that it's senior night, it doesn't mean anything to them. We just came out and got it done today."
Although the Bulls finished the game with 18 turnovers on the night, including11 in the first half, they were able to force the Zips into 11 second-half turnovers and 14 for the game. UB was also able to score 20 points off of turnovers.
"We tried to pressure (Akron) in the first half. (Akron) is a good team and I'm glad our guys responded in the second half," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "I told the guys at halftime, we need to go and continue to rebound the ball and stop turning it over. Thankfully, we began to threaten them enough and they began to turn the ball over a little bit in the second half."
Down by one 29-28 at the end of an uncharacteristically low-scoring first half, the Bulls looked to Roderick Middleton for a big play. Middleton - who was matched up against his younger brother, freshman Akron guard Cedrick - connected on three straight threes to key a 14-4 UB scoring run to give the Bulls a 51-39 advantage with 12:02 remaining in the contest.
"My teammates did a good job of finding me," said the elder Middleton, who finished the game with 15 points, all from beyond the arc. "We ran a couple of plays, they weren't really guarding me. I've got to credit my teammates for finding me. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been able to hit those shots."
Akron was able to slash the Bulls' lead to six points with 8:33 left to play, after Rob Preston swiped the ball from Calvin Cage and was fouled going up for the shot at the other end of the floor. Preston converted one of two free throws to set the score at 53-47, although that was as much of a dent as the Zips would put into the Buffalo lead.
Down the stretch, UB lead by as many as 18 points, essentially sealing the deal with 7:04 left to play when Gilbert netted two of his team-high 17 points off of an unusually flashy behind-the-back pass from Battle that brought the boisterous crowd to its feet.
"I saw (Gilbert) coming and my teammates call me 'Textbook,' they know I don't usually make passes like that," said Battle, of his showy pass. "I threw it to (Gilbert), it probably surprised him a little bit."
In addition to his season-high 17 points, Gilbert pulled down nine boards, while Battle tied a career-high in assists with nine. Battle also reached double figures in scoring, chipping in 13 points.
UB's inside game also proved to be an important asset in the victory, as Buffalo pulled down a season-high 55 rebounds, while scoring 36 points in the paint compared to Akron's 20. Yassin Idbihi and Mario Jordan both seized 10 boards apiece.
As a team, Akron shot just 18-for-67 on the night, good for 26.9 percent shooting from the floor. The Zips were led by Cedrick Middleton's 17 points and five rebounds and Darryl Peterson's 13 points. Rick McFadden finished the game with 11 rebounds and five points for Akron.
"A game like this isn't really about the past, it's not really about what we've done, it's about where we're going," said Bortz. "When we came in our freshman year, there were more people on the court than in the stands and now you see how crazy it is. It's about the direction this program is going. This is just the beginning. It's something for the future, not the past."
Monday night's first round MAC Tournament game against Northern Illinois is scheduled to tip-off at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena.
